Hyundai plug-in electric car sales – October 2018

As reported earlier, Hyundai sold 2,473 Kona Electric in South Korea. Now, we know that sales outside South Korea amounted to 2,144 (both are records), which brings us to a total of 4,617. Not bad at all.

It’s pretty clear they’re serious. Note
(1) Each of Kia & Hyundai has several BEVs & a couple of PHEVs, with some differentiation & segmentation between them, to cover a decent chunk of the market (midsize sedans, CUVs in two sizes (Kona/Niro), efficient family hatch (Ioniq), compact hatch (Soul) & they’ve announced a midsize PHEV CUV (Santa Fe).
(2) They sell in most world markets, incl. RHD ones, so not a compliance-only play.

They were cautious re investment, so limited production, esp. allocation to USA, but it looks like they’ll increase it significantly as soon as they locate battery supply.

The Ioniq will get 39kWh(similar to the “little” Kona) in one year.
In europe you can´t order the ioniq any more because they are sold out till the refreshed ioniq reaches the market.
The batteries are from LG but not the 64kWh from the new Kia Niro.
They are going to sell EVs in Australia and also in India but they don´t produce much EVs.
In several countries in europe you have to wait 18 months up to get the Kona.

I’m really interested in seeing what will be the range on the Ioniq with the 39kWh battery since it is just so damn efficient.
With very simple math it may amount to 172 miles (276km). For 39kWh of battery that would make the Ioniq a tremendous success in Europe if they priced it close to the Leaf!

A practical family hatchback with more range than the standard Leaf and at a lower price would completely sell out for years. There is unstoppable demand for EVs; if automakers could magically increase production to match demand, EV sales would probably triple.

It’s virtually certain a 39kWh Ioniq will have better range than a 40kWh Leaf, though not hugely better — 20-30mi more EPA, most likely.
39kWh is 40% more battery than the current Ioniq, and extra weight of 11kWh isn’t going to be large. Aerodynamics are fantastic, DC charging rate is 70kW vs 50kW without rapidgate and with a real TMS… Cargo volume slightly better.

I’m pretty sure they don’t want to, even if they could (and I’m not sure it’s possible, as the Ioniq has less room under the floor not being a tall CUV). They’d prefer to put the larger pack in a more expensive car, where their profit is (presumably) larger. It makes sense for them to segment the market & position the Ioniq as the less-expensive family car vs. more expensive CUV. The latter are becoming popular/fashionable even in Europe.

Bolt sold out of allocation in a day with long waiting list, not over the course of a year. It’s not clear if Hyundai is actual sales and inventory still available at dealers or they’re sold out and there is waiting list like Bolt.

If prices are similar, Bolt is lot better value (ie, competitive against gassers like VW GTI) in a country that’s only about 200 miles long since DCFC doesn’t matter as much. It wouldn’t surprise me if Hyundai demand is softer.

Also, going by the recent comparison here, the Bolt wouldn’t suddenly become clearly better value if you just took out fast charging out of the equation… They are probably close enough that it comes down personal preferences more than anything.

Waiting list is 16 months in Germany for a build to order. But some people get lucky by simply calling dealers and committing to buy a unseen car in whatever configuration it may be. But this pre launch volume is probably already gone.

It’s promising but a bit like the i-pace it will be interesting to see if they keep increasing or just hit an artificial plateau either because they don’t have enough batteries or they are losing money on each car and want to control the bleeding. I personally think Hyundai are serious about this and will do OK from the EV transition. They are a newish company and have quickly developed tech on a par with market leaders (eg. Ioniq beats the efficiency specs of the Prius for traditional hybrids and is highest for pure EVs).